From Local Village to Global Village – Can the Two Meet?

Abstract

Paper originally presented at the Pre-Congress Seminar of the Education and Training Committee of the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID/ET), held in Graz, Austria, on 20 and 21 October 1996. Outlines the development situation of Namibia and the problems of gaining access to information in Africa. Describes a pilot project in Namibia to establish Community Learning and Development Centres (CLDC) to offer learning opportunities to the community. CLDCs will be based in schools and make use of the school facilities after school hours. The Department of Information Studies at the University of Namibia and the University Library are collaborating in a Human Resources Development Project linking the library to nine centres throughout the country to facilitate access to the University Library database and other databases and also provide access to the Internet. The Department has also designed courses to teach information literacy to university students and children in primary and secondary schools. Cncludes that a holistic approach to African librarianship will do much to reverse the negative image many Africans have of the traditional library.